Please note: we have been online over ten years, and we want The Trek BBS to continue as a free site. But if you block our ads we are at risk.Please consider unblocking ads for this site - every ad you view counts and helps us pay for the bandwidth that you are using. Thank you for your understanding.

Welcome! The Trek BBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans. Please login to see our full range of forums as well as the ability to send and receive private messages, track your favourite topics and of course join in the discussions.

If you are a new visitor, join us for free. If you are an existing member please login below. Note: for members who joined under our old messageboard system, please login with your display name not your login name.

The subtle changes to the live action footage with the actors are almost all terrific and seamless (stuff like Scotty's phaser beam in "The Naked Time," Sulu's clock in the same episode, matte extensions, etc.). The new model shots, done with CGI, are much more of a mixed bag.

My personal opinion is very much in favor of the remastered version, but here's a thought - if you have access to Netflix.
Try them for a 30-day free trial and watch the (remastered) episodes for yourself, and evaluate them by your own standards - that's all that counts anyway. If you like what you see, buy that version.
Happy watching

Jarring? Jarring is going from immaculate live action scenes with nary a blemish or spot to original FX footage swathed in defects and overloaded with grain from being reused over and over again.

It's the reason they did the new FX in the first place--they cleaned up the live action stuff and is just didn't fit with the filthy ,repetitive flybys covered in a grainstorm and riddled with defects that they couldn't clean up.

Then CBS was smart enough to include the original stuff anyway so everybody could watch the version they prefer.

Are we still at the point in 2013 where some folks are saying "I can't afford Blu-ray."

They haven't sold a standard definition TV in 8 years and Blu-ray players are well under $80

and somebody wants to know if they should buy the standard or 'remastered' DVDs?

I was unaware they sell the remastered sets on DVD.

Entire seasons? And if not why would someone just buy selected episodes of remastered in SD as opposed to entire seasons on DVD?

I love the remastered, but if I had to choose between selected episodes in remaster or entire seasons in non remastered--I'd have to take whole seasons.

Location: The planet Terminus, site of the Encyclopedia Foundation on the periphery of the galaxy

Re: Original or remastered effects?

LOKAI of CHERON wrote:

Overall, I'd say 70, maybe 75% of the new FX are rendered well and stand up to repeated viewing. However, when it goes wrong, it REALLY goes wrong. Example, some shots of the Galileo are just awful - looking like they've come straight out of some cheap mid 90's computer game!

It seems as if the FX team's favorite FX are always my least favorite FX. I, too, thought the FX for "Galileo 7" were aweful -- so bad, they're distracting.

My advice to the OPer would be simply to wait until you have a bluray player and you can play the remastered episodes with either the original FX or the newer FX. That way, you get everything in HD and you can compare FX. I don't think there's really any benefit to getting the remastered episodes unless you can actually see them in HD. Yes, the live action is a little clearer, the colors pop more, but the slight benefit isn't worth the money, IMO, especially if you already have the series in standard definition. The best thing about the remastered episodes is the crystal clear HD, but you aren't going to even come close to that on DVD.

EDIT: Sorry to be pedantic, but this is one of my pet peeves -- the new FX are not "remastered" FX. "Remastered" refers only to the original material; the new FX are the only parts of the series that haven't been remastered. When I watch TOS on bluray with the original FX, I'm still watching the remastered episodes. Yes, it bothers me that much, and, yes, I do need a life.

Grant wrote:

They haven't sold a standard definition TV in 8 years and Blu-ray players are well under $80

Eighty bucks is still eighty bucks. Some people do actually have to prioritize, and food usualkly needs to come first before leisure.

and somebody wants to know if they should buy the standard or 'remastered' DVDs?

I was unaware they sell the remastered sets on DVD.

See my note on "remastered" above. TOS has actually been remastered a number of times.

Are we still at the point in 2013 where some folks are saying "I can't afford Blu-ray."

They haven't sold a standard definition TV in 8 years and Blu-ray players are well under $80

and somebody wants to know if they should buy the standard or 'remastered' DVDs?

Yes, that's what I asked in the original post. Eighty dollars is a lot of money for me. My television can only pick up analog signals. And Blu-Ray films I've seen in stores average near $40. Not everyone has as much money to play with as you do. Thanks for the public ridicule.

Yes, that's what I asked in the original post. Eighty dollars is a lot of money for me. My television can only pick up analog signals. And Blu-Ray films I've seen in stores average near $40. Not everyone has as much money to play with as you do. Thanks for the public ridicule.

Don't worry I don't have a Blu-Ray player either. I don't see a need for one. Sure they have gone down in price but there is always something else I want more. Not to mention I still have a non-flat screen TV.

Funny enough I know very few people with a Blu-Ray player. No one in my office has one. And out of my friends (all of us in are low 30's) only one has one.

Are we still at the point in 2013 where some folks are saying "I can't afford Blu-ray."

They haven't sold a standard definition TV in 8 years and Blu-ray players are well under $80

and somebody wants to know if they should buy the standard or 'remastered' DVDs?

Yes, that's what I asked in the original post. Eighty dollars is a lot of money for me. My television can only pick up analog signals. And Blu-Ray films I've seen in stores average near $40. Not everyone has as much money to play with as you do. Thanks for the public ridicule.

Please don't be so sensitive. I wasn't 'publically ridiculing you. $80 is a lot of money to me too in some cases.

A few facts.

You say your TV only 'picks up analog signals'--but they don't send analog signals anymore---so you must have a converter box of some kind to be watching tv at all. Either you or someone in your household bought one OR a box provided by a cable/satellite co. (which I can't afford!)

I also presume you don't have a PS3--since they play Blu-rays as well.

Blu-ray players have settings so they can send standard def signals to older TVs that aren't Hi-Def
So you can play and Blu-ray on any older TV.

Yes Blu-ray can be expensive, but so can older box sets of DVDs as well.

I am pretty sure that full sets of 'remastered' TOS on DVD are not sold. So if you wanted the remastered you'd be deprived of many episodes (Which I personally couldn't do without.)

So if you want to own, in physical media, all the episodes YOU HAVE to buy the old sets without the remastering.

If you want to have all the episodes remastered you have to buy the Blu-rays (They had a fantastic sale at Amazon not long ago and likely will again)

If you are really, really hurting for money the Blu-rays season one set is currently at Amazon cheaper by 41 cents than the DVD.

Blu-ray season one $49.44 vs. DVD season one $49.95---were you thinking of buying season sets?

Maybe you know of a place where you can get the DVD set for less than that?

So I guess I'm saying if you can somehow get ahold of a Blu-ray player--that would be your best option going forward.
I have given away two in the last 5 years and a used one has to be well under $50 bucks and 'black friday' sales are always selling them for under $50!

If you simply cannot foresee being able to get one---it's going to be a choice, I guess, between some partial set of remastereds vs. full or partial sets of NON-remastereds.

I look at it this way---someone can sink more money into a format that is inferior and fading out or invest in a newer format that admitedly a little more money

They haven't sold standard def tv in years and unless you activly seeek out a used SDTV when your currents set(s) die--you will end up getting a HDTV anyway--if you already have a Blu-ray player and some Blu-rays when that happens--you will be good to go for a full upgrade at that point.

But if you are dead set on sticking with DVD and SDTV till you financial situation changes then it's down to the simple choise between the partial/complete nNON-remastered DVDs or the partial remastered sets.

But what person who loves TOS enough to post here will be happy with partial sets?

I checked Amazon and they have brand new Blu-ray for sale at $67.99--no tax free shipping. Still a person might find that $68 they don't have to spend--although buying DVDs requires money as well.

And nobody ever said 'everybody has a blu-ray player'--that's non-sense.
And none of your friends have a PS# which IS a blu-ray player either? That's weird since many people that age play video games.

Many folks are getting into streaming and aren't collector's of movies at all. Please don't say 'most people don't have hi-def" cause that's non-sense as well.

Most folks DO have Hi-def, but don't collect movies in physical form anymore--- if they ever did.

Here we have a case where someone DOESN'T have hi-def TV but does collect movies or tv shows.

As I said, he will someday have to get an HDTV and I'm betting he'll still be a collector after that happens.

Yes, that's what I asked in the original post. Eighty dollars is a lot of money for me. My television can only pick up analog signals. And Blu-Ray films I've seen in stores average near $40. Not everyone has as much money to play with as you do. Thanks for the public ridicule.

I wouldn't worry about it, Melakon.

Many people are happy to continue to purchase and watch DVD. It shows because companies continue to print so many of them. If you want to sample the new effects, you might be able to check out the DVD I mention above from your local library.

Although I hug my Blu-ray player every night before I go to bed. Well, not every night.

Location: The planet Terminus, site of the Encyclopedia Foundation on the periphery of the galaxy

Re: Original or remastered effects?

I just can't justify the expense of DVDs or blurays anymore, not when I can stream TV shows and movies in HD and every episode of every Trek series on Netflix for a negligible monthly fee. Eventually Netflix or Hulu Plus will get around to remastered TNG. I can wait.

I bought the TOS blurays years ago, but I've decided to skip the new TNG sets. Compared to the price of TOS and TNG on VHS -- something like $12 an episode -- the season sets are a steal. But they still cost money I don't need to spend. With online streaming and renting through Netflix, I've reassessed my need to ever own any movies. I've had a bluray player for like three years, but I only have about five or six bluray titles, counting the TOS season sets as one title each. I really just use my bluray to stream Netflix in HD.

My financial situation won't change unless I start playing Lotto. I'm disabled, can't work anymore. There is enough money coming in once a month for rent and food and small expenses, but anything nearing or over $100 I have to budget several months in advance. I can play DVD's on my computer, but not Blu-Ray. And I didn't even start buying DVD until 3 or 4 years ago. Twenty-five years ago I was earning about 3 times what I get now in disability. So money is tight. Life was much better when I could just stop by the video store and order the entire 10-lot set of TOS videotapes that had just been released without checking the bank balance.